Need? No.
Will you regret it if you do it? Also, No.
Iāve enjoyed them all in the past, and donāt drink them with enough regularity to have a clear picture emerge of which I like best, except on the rare occasions Iāve had them next to each other, and a few superlatives here and there. I think whichever Iām drinking at the moment is my favorite. 
Itās so easy to get caught up in the dithering and panicking about which vintage to buy, which bottling to buy, which is the ābest.ā The fear of getting it āwrong.ā The FOMO. I get it, too, from time to time. With the 2019 Huets, I told my merchant (one of my best friends who knows my palate well) that I wanted a case of sec and case of demi and left it up to him to choose which. It was very relaxing, for once. Iām sure Iāll love them, and it will likely never cross my mind for more than a fleeting instant whether I might have liked one of the other ones a little bit better.
I totally agree, Sarah. I have a number of different Huets of different sweetness levels and vintages, and they are all delicious in their own way. One year I might like one bottling a little more than another, but they are all excellent wines in their own ways. Why fuss over one particular bottling when they are all going to be really good?
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It is so nice to have a trusted retailer who knows your palate ā I feel like that isnāt talked-about enough on here, with all (most) of us being geeks who almost always know more than the wine store staff. Historically, Iāve been introduced to many wines Iāve enjoyed greatly as a result of telling the trusted retailer, āI have $xx to spend, and I want # bottles. Ready, set, go!ā Key in this being a successful endeavor is providing honest feedback.
And, a quick word on Chenin food pairings: I routinely sub-in Chenin for Chardonnay, and actually struggle to think of a situation where Chardonnay works but Chenin does not. I know this is so terribly specific itās almost ridiculous to mention, but the pairing is just so damn good ā¦ butternut squash ravioli ---- sooooo good with Chenin! 
I agree, Sarah. While some years are better-suited to sec or demi-sec or the sweeter styles, we have the benefit of the fact that Huet basically selects for us and only makes the wines that the vintage allows them to make. As a result, thereās basically nothing they release that is less than good.
I agree with you, Brian. Thatās the advice I give people just starting out in wine, provided they have access to a good shop. And when non-wine people ask me things like āI want to give a gift of wine around $XX,ā instead of suggesting specific wines they probably wonāt be able to find, I tell them where to go and even what staff member to ask. Or just to find the best store in the area if I donāt know one specifically. And feedback is absolutely key if you want to get full benefit.
Something related that doesnāt get mentioned much either is taking care of your side of the relationship as a consumer. Give your loyal business to stores you appreciate, donāt give them a hard time, be patient. Itās not a one way street. For example, with the shop I mentioned, if he offers a wine I want on a blast email, I buy it from him usually without even checking the price. I know from years of dealing with him that heās always competitive, though not always the best. I have no interest in beating him up on price for a few dollars savings, or making him take razor thin margins when I know heās got a family to feed. This approach with a few trusted and excellent retailers has paid huge dividends over the years - choice bottles set aside, first access, a gift here and there, insight into the market, not to mention valuable recommendations and advice, even at my experience level.
Of course Iām not talking about paying huge premiums or accepting crap service. Just giving a little to get a lot.
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I donāt necessarily disagree with the overall tone here, but I do feel that itās a bit interesting that a group of people who might be obsessing about which dāangerville vineyard, or Dauvissat, or PYCM, or Champagne producer bottling to be buying, has a āwhateverā attitude toward Huet bottlings.
Or he might. Itās really good.
Yeah. Thereās nothing wrong with having general preferences for one or the other vineyard for Huet even if I do think that all the wines are usually good.
John, Iām not one of those people. While there are particular wines from these producers that might be considered better, Iām happy to have any of these wines in my cellar. I donāt obsess about having a particular wine from anyoneā¦I just try to stick with producers I really like and find wines I can afford, whether their ābestā wine or not. It reminds me of when I was in the distribution business. Customers would clamor for Chevillon Les Saint Georges (which we might get 2 cases for the entire state) and then turn down Perrieres, Vaucrains, or Pruliers because it wasnāt the ābestā. Meā¦Iām happy to have any Chevillon in the cellar. My policy when I was ITB was that I wouldnāt take any wines that were allocated and would only take things for myself that our customers passed on. So, from those days I donāt have any LSG, any Roulot PCs, any Allemand, etc. But I have a lot of things that people passed on and were good enough for me. But then I got to visit and taste in the cellars, and I got to see that the difference between a Chevillon LSG and Perrieres in certain vintages were negligible. And the Perrieres might be the more enjoyable wine for the first 15-20 years of its life. And Iām good with that.
I think youād be hard pressed to find an example of me obsessing on the board about which vintage or bottling to buy. Though I am more definite in my choices of wines I drink regularly, and therefore know better, Iām often the one saying that great producers make great wine, especially in great vintages. Youāll almost certainly love what you buy. 2019 was a year that, from what I read, it would be hard to go wrong at Huet, so it was particularly easy to be easy going.
Thinking about it, I donāt really think my attitude about the 2019 is out of character for me. Here are a few responses Iāve sent via PM to people whoāve written me for input when they were obsessing over which vintage or bottling to buy:
āI urge you to stop worrying so much about what to buy and when to openā¦As I mentioned before, thereās a tendency on the board to check every decision we make, and a lot of agonizing over getting the ārightā wine, the ābestā wine, the ābetterā vineyard or vintage. Instead of helping, I think a lot of that leads to indecision and stress. I see it in myself, even after all this time.ā
āYou might consider choosing the 2011 Boca (instead of the Gattinara), as warm vintages tend to do well up north. Or you could put both names on a wall, throw a dart, and pick the one you hit. You canāt lose either way.ā
āThereās no point in even asking the question of which is ābetterā at that level, as either one could outperform the other on the right day. And unless you have them next to each other, youāll never know if you might have liked the other better.ā
And especially in isolation, if youāre not tasting side by side, will you notice a difference?
Yes, you would notice a difference, even if not tasting side to side. Although they are all good, in their own ways.
Interesting responses. I guess Iām surprised, and I guess Iām somehow a little different from what you folks are describing. I very clearly prefer certain Chablis producers Chablis vineyards, and certain burgundy producers vineyards, and certain Barolo producers wines. I donāt want someone else substituting another vineyard, I want that specific wine in that specific year. Would you want someone subbing a scotch amongst the line-up of Balvenie for the one you asked for? (I donāt drink that line up, but just as an example)
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I lean this way too, John. I donāt see how I could otherwise allocate a finite budget. Which doesnāt mean I donāt try new wines or test my own preferences. For Huet, I now steer toward Le Mont while still buying Clos du Bourg and Le Haut Liu on occasion. These wines have a consistently unique profile even as the RS goes up. As another example, for Francois Cotat, I now steer toward Culs de Beaujeu and Mont Damnes over Grand Cote and also cooler vintages. Here, the wine profiles are consistent enough and consistently different, and my preference strong and clear enough, that I never buy Grand Cote anymore from either Cotat cousin. But these preferences did take many years to develop.
There are a lot of other examples from all over even if I still like to explore and keep an open mind.
I think youāre taking what weāre saying, or at least what I am saying, to a much broader generalization than we mean it and in the process ignoring the details. I donāt think any of us are saying we would take any Chablis over any other, or that we donāt have producer preferences, or that weād let someone substitute without discussion. And weāre not talking about situations where we already know the exact wine we want based on experience - the dithering and obsessing doesnāt happen then. Weāre talking about situations where people are trying to choose among several great options, all of which they like, or are pretty sure they will like. Or, a little different in Marshallās example, people who get attached to the idea that XX bottling is āthe best,ā and so only want that, likely without even tasting.
I didnāt say to my merchant āgive me any old Vouvray, any producer or vintage or vineyard.ā I gave him discretion within a very limited category, where I was confident all the options were good. I know and like all the Huet wines, saw they were all strong in 2019, and, not having a decided consistent preference myself, let my merchant choose the vineyards, feeling confident I couldnāt go wrong. I said all that in my OP.
Of course I prefer certain producers - I am pretty darn certain Adrian and Marshall do, too. I am also on record many times on this board saying my tastes are quite established, and that I rarely experiment, that I know what I like. I already said above that Iām more definite about producers I drink more often, and know well. If thereās a wine from a producerās lineup that I prefer strongly, then I probably buy more of it, and if thereās one I donāt like, even from a beloved producer, of course I donāt buy it. But I do often feel a lot of flexibility within the lineup of a producer I love, and, to some extent, from vintage to vintage of that producer.
When the 2019 Rieslings came out, there was tons of hype, and there a ton of this obsessing Iām talking about. There were dozens if not hundreds of comments and questions from people clearly getting really worked up about whether they should buy heavily, or backfill. Is this vintage like 2015? Or is it more like 2012? I got half a dozen PMs from folks really worried about whether they should pay up for a 2019, or backfill another 2017 for less. Or saying āIāve heard this is a Fruhlingsplatchen vintage, but Iāve only been offered the Halenberg!ā Or āthere are so many Falkenstein bottlings, what should I do?ā While I understand where they are coming from, and I feel it too sometimes, in almost every case they were talking about a top tier producerās top wines in a top vintage. If you donāt already have a clear preference, why worry about it? Youāll almost certainly love them both, and you will never know anyway.
Another example - I get a lot of questions via PM about Vallana, since I routinely praise their wines as some of the greatest red QPRs out there. People come to me trying to decide among 3 different vintages of the Gattinara, or should they buy a lesser vintage of the Boca versus a better vintage of the Spanna. Putting aside the fact that my preferences arenāt necessarily going to translate to their preferences, I honestly think it doesnāt matter. They are all great wines in good to excellent vintages. If the person already knows they prefer the Boca, then great - buy the Boca. If you donāt have a preference already, then either buy them both and compare to learn for yourself, or just choose one fairly randomly. Donāt obsess over whether you might theoretically like the other one better.
To sum up, when I know the wine I want, I buy that. When I am trying to choose among a few wines, all of which I am confident I will like, I donāt need to read a thousand notes to try and dwell for hours on if I might like this one a teeny bit more than that one.
Wait, we donāt need to agonize over teeny, tiny differences? Would this board even exist otherwise? ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
I find it interesting that Le Haut Lieu seems to get the least love and Le Mont the most. When Iāve had 2-3 vineyard sites side by side, from the same vintage and sweetness level, I have always either liked Le Haut Lieu the best or had no preference. I have done comparisons with young wines and around 15 years from vintage (give or take a few years). My takeaway is always that Iād be happy to have any of them. I buy what I can get conveniently, donāt worry about missing out on Clos du Bourg if I do, and get a variety whenever possible. These are not annual purchases for me, but I do love the wines.
The differences in quality and my preference between different vineyard sites are almost always much more pronounced for me when I compare Burgundies or Barolos from the same producer (with probably a couple of exceptions).
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While I love chenin and will usually reach for it over chardonnay there are definitely foods where I prefer the latter. Mushrooms come to mind, also gougeres. Probably a few others if I spent time thinking about it.
And Iād certainly reach for riesling over chenin for pork.
Donāt listen to any seditious nonsense, of course we do!
Anyway, Iām not buying much if any new release wine for cellaring so I donāt have any 2019 Huets. When I backfill I have a definite preference for Le Mont because in general I like what they do with age the best. But I would never turn down a CdB or LHL.
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Exactly. Iām not suggesting that a large negociant NSG is a substitute, or comparable, to a Chevillon Premier Cru. But within Chevillonās lineup, Iād be happy owning Perrieres, Chaignots, Pruliers, and Roncieres (which I do) instead of obsessing about LSG. I think too many people focus on what is supposedly the best, on scores, and on scarcity. I truly donāt care about any of that. I just care about having a variety of really nice wines that I enjoy. Itās the same with Huet. I enjoy all of the sec and demi-sec bottlings, and so donāt obsess about a particular one in a particular vintage. Yes, I may prefer one slightly more than another, but to me itās not worth the time scouring the internet to get one particular bottling when I can get 2-3 others from a local shop that I will like almost as much.
Yes, for sure. There are many producers I know that I love, and I buy a wide cross section of wines from them. Using Chevillon again, I have bottles from 6 different premier crus, the VV bottling, as well as Bourgogne Blanc and Rouge, spread over 8 different vintages. And with Huet I have 7 different bottlings spread over 7 vintages. So if I donāt get one particular bottling in one vintage, I donāt really careā¦I know I will like the ones I do find.
But I also am a big fan of experimentation and trying new things, and actively seek out regions, producers, and wines that are new to me. Thatās the only way, especially in Covid times, to find new favorites and alternatives to wines (like Chevillon) that Iāve been priced out of. Yeah, I wish I could still get 1er Chevillon for $60 wholesale. But I canātā¦so I move on and look for other things I enjoy.
I agree with this. The latter can also be an earlier stage en route to the former. When I first taste a producer and like what I taste, but am not sure which wine(s) I prefer, I will buy what I can and/or buy a number based on retailer recommendation to start to figure out if I have preferences. I usually do even where in a broader sense I like all the wines.